Cattle production

Agriculture

Cattle production

decreasing

What does this measure?

The number of cattle in an area used for beef or milk. The total figures include calves.

Why is this important?

The presence of significant numbers of cattle is an indication of a region's ability to meet the needs for beef or dairy products locally, without shipping cattle out for slaughter and processing, which adds to costs for food.

How is our region performing?

In 2016, the region had 170,700, or 9% of the state's 1,830,000 cattle. For the region, this was an increase of 7% from 2015 and a decrease of 16% since 2007. The state's cattle totals have also increased since 2015 (6%) and had an overall decrease of 19% since 2007. Monroe (38,000) and Jefferson (32,000) counties had the greatest amounts of cattle, and Anderson (7,100) and Union counties (8,600) had the least among the region in 2016.

Although every county increased their cattle by an amount between 6% and 9% from 2015, Monroe was the only county to increase overall from 2007-16 (9%), while Jefferson stayed even. Declines ranging from 9% (Union) to 32% (Knox) were seen in the remaining counties.

Notes about the data

Calves are excluded from the tallies of beef and dairy cows, so the sum of beef and milk cows is less than the total cattle figures, which include calves.